Another Day of Quilting

It was a gorgeous day in Montana, I even ate my lunch while sitting outside on the deck, a first this spring. 

Michael headed off to meet Steve early this morning, they were on a mission to find parts for the “project.”  Now you look at this photo and tell me if you think this looks like a “project!”

Susie showed up a little after nine and we began another day of quilting—she started to be very independent today allowing me to do some things such as transplant seedlings and get a project cut out for the quilt retreat I am attending this weekend.  Susie completed two quilts today, one a larger quilt and the other a baby quilt. 

Emmi still is leery of going outside with that dreaded purple collar round her neck.  She will stay out there if someone is with her but doesn’t like to be left alone.  Yesterday afternoon I turned the shock feature of the fence off just leaving the noise alert signal on.  Emmi was outside by herself and I could see her getting close to where I knew the underground wire was located—when Emmi heard the warning signal through the collar, she streaked back to the house and the back door.  So, I am pleased that she recognizes what the signal means—“do not cross!!”  Encouraging!

That’s about it for today, another beautiful spring day in Montana.

Quilting Student

A few weeks ago APQS (manufacture of my longarm) sent me a potential lead—someone looking to purchase a longarm.  As I am a sales rep for APQS, I called the woman, Susie who lives in Helena and spoke with her about the machines.  She and friends had thought to purchase one together but had decided against it.  Susie told me she was driving to Billings to rent a longarm on occasion.  I explained that I rented my longarm and could probably arrange accommodations if she wanted to come over for more than one day.  Well, to make a long story short, she arrived today and will be staying in Joe and Tammy’s house for 3 nights, using my longarm during the day. 

My brain is tired, teaching is hard work! 

This morning Michael headed off for Lonn’s to move some more dirt and Emmi and I went for a walk.  Emmi did a little better today being outside with the electric fence collar on, not much, but a little.   I went outside and we played fetch the stick which seemed to help get her a little more comfortable.

It was another beautiful day today, I hung my sheets outside to dry, I love the smell of sheets hung outside. 

Emmi visiting Nat at the sawmill. These horses seemed to be saying, “hey, don’t you have anything for us to eat??”

A Yellowstone Day

In spite of the fact I should have spent the day quilting, it was just too gorgeous a day to stay inside.  Michael suggested we put the top down and take a drive over to Yellowstone.  I packed a picnic and off we went.

First was a stop at Nat’s.  He called this morning, his TV died.  We had an older Sharp TV we weren’t using so he drove up and we loaded the heavy old thing into his truck.  The stop in town was to get the heavy old thing out of his truck, into the house and working with his cable—success—now we are really off to Yellowstone.

We were getting hungry about 2pm and stopped at a fishing access along the Yellowstone River and ate our lunch.  The view was beautiful and the sun warm.

What a wonderful, wonderful day!  When we reached the north entrance gate, the park ranger told us we didn’t even need to get out our senior pass—the fee was waived all week for everyone—entry was free!  We have been in the park so many times it is impossible to count—my first time was when I was 17 years old, Michael’s was at a much earlier age as he lived near the park all his life.  Usually no matter what month or day you go the traffic and people are unbearable.  Today, there was no one in the park, very few vehicles and very few people.  All the roads are not open yet but we could have driven to Old Faithful if we had chosen to.

On Labor Day last year my sister and her husband were visiting, it was also my birthday and we drove over to the park to meet my Mom and Chuck for a picnic.  We sat at a table just to the right of where the above photo was taken—we had trouble finding a parking place or a picnic table and people were swarming everywhere—not today!  It was wonderful!

We got into a different sort of traffic jam, buffalo on the road—meeting buffalo on the road in an open top car is almost as scary as meeting them on a motorcycle.  Emmi didn’t know what to think about those big ole shaggy critters!

  

See, there was really no one there, in the photo above you can see the hotel and the restaurant around which there are usually hundreds of people, not today—have I said it was wonderful??

There was still some snow around, this is a shot of the Mammoth Hot Springs terraces with just a little bit of steam in the top middle of the photo.

An absolutely perfect day.  Home about 6pm and relaxing, life is good.

Good Morning

It is a glorious beautiful Sunday morning here in Montana, a little on the chilly side but I bet the temps warm up today.  We are slow getting about, we had a busy day yesterday getting ready for our dinner party—Jeane, Steve, Jill and Terry joined us for a great meal and even better conversation.  Terry has become very involved politically the last few years and our discussions can get a little rowdy and at times off the wall!  It was a great evening.

I wish I could have been in Arkansas yesterday, my dear Mom got married to Chuck at a ceremony in the home of my sister Ann and my brother-in-law Danny’s house last evening.  We wish them both the best.  In late May they will travel out to Montana in Chuck’s motor home to start their jobs in Yellowstone Park for the summer again.

Mike and friend Steve drove to Livingston yesterday to visit “junk yards” to find parts for Steve’s “project” truck Michael is assisting with.  No luck, the junk yards were closed, on a SATURDAY??? 

Poor little Emmi is traumatized—she doesn’t like to be outside by herself with all those scary white flags around the perimeter of her yard—we still think it is for the best and Emmi will be around to enjoy a lot longer if she is forced to stay in the yard.  She will learn to cope with some positive reinforcement from us.  I gave her a bath yesterday, she is so huggable and good smelling now.

That’s it for now, I will do a longer blog tonight with photos.

64 Degrees

Now that’s more like it, sunny and 64 degrees today, hardly any wind.  Maybe spring will come to Montana eventually.

We had a great time at Nat’s last night with Lonn, LoraLee and Laci.  The pizza was good and the company was better.  It was fun to watch Lonn and Nat play cribbage and interact with each other—Nat has a wonderful sense of humor and I think Lonn inherited it—the two of them traded insults constantly.  Laci heads back to Lackland Air Force base on Sunday, we have enjoyed seeing her so much, she left us two years ago a rebellious, mouthy teenager and now she is a very mature young woman who is a pleasure to be around.

We took the little car into town and of course Laci had to accompany her Grandpa to get the pizzas.  She said riding in that cool car was worth messing up her hair!

Today was a very traumatic day for little Emmi—I think she was shocked by the fence twice and probably has it figured out.  I have white and red flags around the perimeter of the fence and she is giving those flags a wide berth.  It didn’t hurt me as bad as I thought is would when she got shocked because I know it is safer for her.

I am sitting in my easy chair writing this blog and Michael may have to help me get out of this chair.  I have spent the entire day cleaning and cleaning some more.  I started on our house and ended up down at Joe and Tammy’s.  I have a client coming on Monday to rent my longarm and to stay in Joe and Tammy’s house for a few days while she quilts so thus, I am cleaning! 

Michael worked on his little skid steer project all day so he may also have trouble getting out of his recliner.

I am going to just sit here now and enjoy my glass of wine!

Poor Emmi

When I moved to Montana to marry Michael I had two Airedales, big dogs.  These dogs had been trained to one of the underground electric shock collars.  The transmitter collar each of them wore emitted a signal if they got too close to the underground wire—if they got really too close the dogs received a shock.  Sounds cruel but so is getting eaten by a coyote, run over by a car, etc.  We installed the fencing underground for the Airedales and also trained our other miniature schnauzer Jazz to the fence.  The fencing works like a charm—Jazz was smart enough to know if she had the collar on or not, the Airedales just stayed inside the perimeter all the time.

Well, now it is Emmi’s turn.  The weather has been nice the last couple of days and I spend half my time going outside looking for Emmi.  Today I called and called, beginning to get very worried before she finally appeared covered in burdock burrs.  So, I spent today repairing breaks in the fence and putting up flags all around the perimeter to give her fair warning when her collar signals.  Nat is picking up some batteries for the collar in town and tomorrow I will train the dog.  I have stuck my finger to the shock collar and it does not hurt, it just will hurt her feelings—it will probably hurt Mom more than it will Emmi.  Can you tell I’m not looking forward to this??

Nat came for lunch and I made potato soup, salad and homemade bread.  Tonight we are going into Nat’s to meet Lonn, LoraLee and Laci for pizza. 

Michael has spent the day working on the skid steer.  Doug, a skid steer is a Bobcat—you can move all sorts of things with one—manure, garden dirt, rocks, equipment.  It is one piece of equipment I don’t think we could be without! 

Chores and Chores

We slogged through a walk this morning, lots of mud leftover from yesterday’s rain and snow.  After the walk I started on the laundry and was about to start transplanting sprouted seedlings into bigger pots when Michael decided we would take the motor home to Big Timber for its new tires.  OUCH—six tires and they aren't cheap ones, either!

Came back home and made lunch—tried a new recipe—shrimp with garlic, butter and panko crumbs—it was very good.  A big salad and lots of veggies finished off our meal. 

Then I got to start on the gardening in between loads of laundry.  My little seeds spouted and now I have baby plants—cucumber, squash, tomato, etc.  Planted some more seeds today—I want to have some gorgeous sunflowers ready for Katie’s wedding. 

One of my newest save money ideas is never if I can help it pay full price for anything—today I established a wholesale account with Moda Fabrics one of my favorite lines of quilting fabric.  Now I just have to decide what I need from their website without breaking the bank! 

Michael got his small skid steer painted bright yellow and when he came inside about 3pm, I noticed his facial whiskers and hair are just a little yellow tinged—sure hope it come out and off!

Life is good.